Our research on Catesby’s lily is aimed at improving the scientific basis of its management, and as much as possible, at using this system to improve our (1) methods for studying plant demography, (2) understanding of the factors that affect plant distribution and abundance on the scale of populations and metapopulations, and (3) understanding of some key features of life history evolution. This threatened species occurs in many wet pine flatwoods and similar habitats in the southeast. This research is in collaboration with the Pinellas County Environmental Lands Division, and in particular with Kristen Penney Sommers and Steve Harper at Brooker Creek Preserve. It has been funded by the Pinellas County Environmental Fund.

Much of the work is based on the 8-yr data set compiled by the Pinellas County Environmental Lands Division, in which thousands of plants were marked, mapped, and regularly recensused. Besides continuing the demographic studies and beginning to develop demographic models, we have extended this work with studies on microhabitat preferences. Additionally, we have established a captive population with individuals of known relatedness at the USF Botanical Garden to permit experiments examining the genetic basis of variation in demographic traits.